“He’s lazy.” “He doesn’t like football.” “His lack of commitment to the game is frightening.” Just a few quotes from real human beings who ran with the idea that Oregon’s feared edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux had zero interest in football. A pre-draft narrative that began long before the process began in the public eye. A narrative that truthfully was silenced on draft night when Thibodeaux shared an unforgettable moment with Sam Prince full of passion, joy, and a whole lot of fire fueled by those who doubt him. The 22-year-old was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team as he tallied four sacks, forced two fumbles, collected 49 tackles, and again… showed a whole lot of emotion on the football field whether it was in poor taste or not. It was just Kayvon being Kayvon. A young man who loves this game and strives to get better each and every day. So why all those question marks about Thibodeaux in the months leading up to the biggest moment of his life? I have my thoughts and I’m here to share ‘em.

You know what’s weird? Grown adults picking apart a young man in his late teens or early 20s just days, weeks, months before hearing his name called in the draft. NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, etc. It doesn’t matter what league, it happens. But the two most popular — the NFL and the NBA — get all the attention. Recently, I really thought about this and realized… this is the most idiotic thing. This is so lame. For those who don’t know me, I don’t cuss, and when I say something is super idiotic and lame it’s supposed to weigh a lot. Weird, I know. Oh well. Anyway, it’s wildly embarrassing behavior from the adults. So think about this… we’ll call this NFL prospect Sammy Turtles. Sammy has been an impressive QB prospect for two years and is finally set to enter the NFL. With nothing but praise being shown his way and no red flags for years, that begins to change right after a strong performance at the NFL combine. One day, there are reports that come out saying that Sammy Turtles has poor work ethic, would rather pursue a career in baseball, and doesn’t have any close friends from his college team. Three baseless claims made just to stir the pot. No truth to any of them, just grown adults in the industry attempting to ruin the image of a stellar prospect. Messing with the bank account of a young man who has worked his entire life to get to this point and is weeks away from making life changing money for him and his family. Isn’t that sick and twisted? It’s happening right now by the way…

“C.J. Stroud is a fascinating test study for the S2 cognitive test and how much it matters to NFL teams. If he drops, maybe it’s something; or perhaps he’s the guy teams want to fall. That happens a lot, too. Stroud lacks a killer quality as a prospect but has a lot of good elements to his game to portend success.” – Eric Edholm of NFL Media.

Those S2 Cognition test scores leaked, and from there it became a smear campaign on Stroud. After Carolina traded for the first overall pick, many of us believed that Stroud was going to be the top selection. In recent weeks, it’s clear as day that Bryce Young will be the first pick and with that development has brought in plenty of anti-Stroud propaganda. Completely baseless claims being made with zero truth to them are flying out there with the intention of tanking Stroud’s draft position. HOW WEIRD ARE PEOPLE? He’s 21 years old and is being targeted like this is political and he’s running for president. I just can not fathom the idea of these fully grown adults going out of their way to deface a 21-year-old kid. I can’t be alone on this. Surely, there are others out there who are truly baffled and dumbfounded by this stuff. 

I reached out to Robert Griffin III for his thoughts because he’s an icon in the football media world and has been through the draft process before and has seen this type of stuff from every angle possible… “As media, we have a responsibility to tell player’s stories the right way. The platform we are blessed with shouldn’t be taken lightly. We owe it to the fans and the players to vet every story we are told about a player or prospect before echoing it to millions of fans on TV or on social media, especially the stories with character damaging information in them. It is disturbing that these smear campaigns routinely happen year after year and cause unwarranted damage to these players’ reputations. Too often lies are reported and used to hurt players. It ain’t right and needs to stop.”

Incredibly well-said from one of the best in the game. There might be another one in the next 24 hours right before the draft kicks off. There will surely be another next year and the year after and so on and so forth the same pathetic story goes.

I envision an older man sitting down for dinner with his kids and grandkids just enjoying the night with family. In between bites of the free basket of bread, he’s typing furiously, firing off texts saying that a certain prospect cheated on his pop quiz in math class back in seventh grade. After texting away about some ludicrous comment that means absolutely nothing, he goes back to chilling with his family. I think it’s this dynamic of being so friendly with your kids and grandkids, much younger human beings, while simultaneously trying to mess with the life of a young 20-year-old… is that not sick and twisted in some way? Turn the tables and see what happens if some baseless rumors started to fly around about his son who is applying for a new job. Imagine the boss of that job getting random texts saying that this applicant doesn’t actually love the field he’s working in, can’t tie a tie, and started a food fight in eighth grade. I’d love to see how the orchestrator of a smear campaign turns around to defend his son who just became the subject of one. Hmm… ain’t so funny now!

Then you have prospect fatigue which is just a joke in itself. People hyping up a prospect for so long that they become burnt out and bored with said prospect so they end up thinking he’s overrated. Fun stuff! Or one bad thing happens to a top prospect and they run with it like it’s the worst thing in the world… Jaxon Smith-Njigba just had a hamstring injury y’all. I promise he’s okay and is still the excellent player we saw in 2021 that has received raving reviews from NFL studs Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave. Oh, and people trying to turn JSN’s hamstring injury into questioning his commitment to team sports and loving football is comical. He gave it a go multiple times despite not being ready and ended up reaggravating the injury a bit each time. Then he chooses not to risk it again in the postseason and gets ripped to shreds because he’s protecting his draft capital… wild. Y’all are so silly! 

At the end of the day this stuff won’t stop. It’s important that y’all don’t start spewing garbage like many others do. It’s important that you don’t fall for the baseless claims that arise at the most interesting times every draft cycle. Look out for the Victor Wembanyama takes during the NBA pre-draft process. All you’ve been hearing about is how he’s generational and all that, but just wait until some old man starts a rumor that he has weak knees or would rather spend his nights playing video games and not hooping. So wack.

It’s tiring, it’s annoying, it’s weird, and people just need to be better.